1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to communication connectors, and, more specifically, to a communication connector with improved crosstalk reduction.
2. Description of the Related Art
The widespread use of communication devices has spurred the development of communication connectors. Initially, communication devices such as telephones, computer terminals, and the like were hardwired. For example, the wire cable for a telephone was coupled directly through a hole in a wall plate to electrical terminals.
Modern telephone connectors use an industry standard receptacle mounted in the wall and a mating industry standard plug at the end of a telephone cord. The use of industry standard connectors permits the convenient installation of telephones. Similarly, industry standard connectors have been developed for other communication devices such as computers. For example, a personal computer may be coupled to a local area network (LAN) via a communication connector similar to those used with telephones.
The use of communication connectors with telephones does not result in the degradation of signal quality because telephones typically have limited bandwidth. However, high-speed communication devices, such as computers, can suffer significant degradation of signal quality due to conditions such as crosstalk occurring where a signal on a line pair interferes with a signal on another line pair.
Conventional insulation displacement connector (IDC) designs have associated capacitive and inductive crosstalk that hinders efforts to comply with sophisticated communication standards. Past attempts to satisfy Category 6 communication standards have sought to reduce the detrimental effects potentially caused by IDCs through use of configurations for the IDC different than the configurations for the conventional IDCs. Having different IDC configurations can be undesirable, however, since other problems can be introduced including those involved with equipment logistics and support.